This trailer for Ping Pong Playa had me rolling! This is exactly the type of movie that I never knew I was waiting for. It’s been a while since I’ve seen an American produced movie with a predominantly Asian cast where no one does any kung fu fighting. About fucking time! Although, ping pong is also kind of stereotypically a Chinese sport, but I’ll take it. This looks like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it’s so indy that it’s not playing at a theater near me. Poop! I think they’re running premiers in California so you west coast Angry Zen Masters will have to check it out and report back. I really want to see this on the big screen, but if I have to wait, I’ll freaking buy the DVD as soon as it drops!

[Via Ping Pong Playa]

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AZM Ally Greg sends word that George Takei and Brad Altman tied the knot at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California! Takei’s former Star Trek costars Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols were best man and matron of honor. The couple have been together for 21 years and now, thanks to California’s repeal of the same-sex marriage ban, are legally married.

Congratulations to George and Brad! It’s about damn time!

[Via BBC]

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Angry Zen Minion Paul Jang writes in with a Census Bureau report that indicates by 2050, minorities will be the majority in America. Minorities are classified as non-Hispanic, single-race white people. Hopefully by then, it won’t really matter.

The starry eyed liberal idealist in me believes that people should be judged on the strength of their character and not external factors like the color of their skin, the cut of their clothes, height, weight, eye slant, whatever. I try not to bang the racial indignation hammer too hard here at AZM because I want to believe that it doesn’t matter. The sad fact is that in today’s America, Audrey and I will have to explain to our future children why some people in this country don’t want to play with them just because they look different. We’ll have to spend time bracing them against the racial slurs they may encounter. Hopefully, our grand kids will be free from such nonsense. But for now, it saddens me to resign myself to the knowledge that even in the new damn millennium, we just ain’t there yet.

Out of all my friends, I’m one of the first to notice little racial inconsistencies like casting Zhang Ziyi as a Japanese geisha or cliches like the black guy always dying first. I like to think that by pointing such things out, I’m helping to broaden awareness of potentially offensive trends. But sometimes I wonder if it does more annoyance than good. I could spend a good few posts tearing this summer’s movie slate a new asshole for its lack of diversity. But really, who cares? Did the lack of people who look like me on the big screen take away from my enjoyment of the blockbusters that destroyed box office records? Not really. My disappointment was rather mild compared to the awesome multiple geeky joygasm Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E, Hell Boy 2 and Dark Knight gave me.

To expect America to change to suit my world view is stupid. My views are just as insane as the next person’s and really, neither of us are completely right. However, I can choose how I perceive my country. If Obama loses the Presidency, it’s not because America’s racist or ignorant or afraid or whatever else the pundits and news organizations will say. He will have lost because more people want the other guy. For whatever reason, more people will have voted for the other guy. That’s all you get. To try to interpret why is an exercise in futility. How can anyone possibly know, I mean really know, why other choose one way or another. For the record, we here at AZM are totally in the Obama camp.

America is what you make of it. If you expect the best, you will find the best. If you expect the worst, you will find the worst. You will find every little inconsistency, every little cliche, every little offense filling your days with an endless stream of soul crushing complaints. Makes for great blogging, but it’s not very constructive.

In 2050, race may indeed no longer matter. But I’m not waiting. People should be judged by their character and not their skin color and that’s how I choose to live.

[Via CNN]

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Image via Just Jared

There is no denying that Jake Gyllenhaal is a dishy piece of man meat in his Prince of Persia costume. Clearly he’s been bulking up to play Dastan. While we certainly appreciate his dedication to the physicality of the role, he just doesn’t fit. Prince Valiant hair and manly stubble do not a Persian make. I guess it’s slightly racist of me to decry Gyllenhaal’s casting simply because he’s not Persian, but dammit, this just doesn’t fit. I’m sure there will be lots of Persians as extras or support characters. Why not just grab an unknown? Ah well.

So is it just me or do you think he’ll be perfectly good as Dastan?

[Via Just Jared]

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And it’s not because of Robert Downey, Jr.’s portrayal of an actor who dons extreme blackface.

A coalition of disability advocacy groups is calling for a nation wide boycott of Tropic Thunder over the movie’s use of hate speech against the intellectually disabled. The main source of contention is a subplot in which Ben Stiller plays a mentally challenged character Simple Jack in the hopes of winning an Oscar. Throughout the film, Stiller’s Simple Jack is referred to as a “retard,” a term that is considered by some to be hate speech.

I remember an American Studies course I took in college and we had a guest speaker who was a disabilities advocate. She said that to her, the word “retard” was as offensive as the word “nigger.” I had never thought of it in that light. She explained that if derogatory language was unacceptable when referring to one’s color, it should also be unacceptable when referring to one’s mental or physical abilities. The reason none of think of “retard” that way is because we largely ignore the mentally challenged. Since then, I have tried my best to refrain from using that word.

I did remember something about Simple Jack in one of the previews I saw, but I didn’t think it would be such a prevalent theme throughout the picture. I was more concerned with the reaction to Downey, Jr.’s blackface. However, I still think Tropic Thunder is going to be awful damn funny.

I think a boycott is an appropriate response. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Tell people why you’re not watching and maybe they’ll join you. I will probably see this at some point. I don’t discount the offense at all, but I think if we bind comedy by what is tasteful or unoffensive, the world would be a lot less funny.

[Via New York Times]

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Angry Zen Minion Kensei sent over these Snickers commercials featuring Mr. T.

Funny, right?

Well, apparently, there are some who feel that this ad campaign which aired in the UK derides homosexuals. US based Human Rights Campaign filed a protest to the Mars corporation claiming that the ads, which never fucking aired in the US, support “the notion that the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is a group of second class citizens and that violence against GLBT people is not only acceptable but humorous.”

That’s quite a bit of a stretch. First, there is no anti-gay, anti-lesbian, anti-bisexual, or anti-transgender language used by Mr. T. Second, since when is speed walking only associated with the GLBT community? Third, the commercial didn’t even air in the US so what the fuck are you complaining about?

What the flying fuck! Speed walking has to be one of the most ridiculous looking Olympic sports next to curling. I don’t want to live in a world where we can’t make fun of speed walking. The fucking guy looked like a skinny duck with yellow shorts so Mr. T shot at him with Snickers bars. Duck walking is not manly. That’s fucking funny!

As liberal as I guess I pretend to be these days, I’m getting really fed up with the political correcting of everything. You can’t give each other a fist pound without it being a terrorist hand shake. You can’t wear a black and white scarf on a commercial without it somehow supporting terrorists. You can’t say anything about black, white, or yellow people without being racist. You can’t call someone unmanly without being a homophobe. You have to wear a fucking flag pin or you’re not a patriot. What the hell people?!

Get over yourselves and get back to laughing. There are people dying in the world today reasons that no one has been able to really explain. You really think some stupid Snickers commercial will lead to the downfall of society?

Get some nuts? Get some fucking balls!

[Via Ronin Tech and Daily Mail]

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So this is Jay Smooth, creator of the Hip Hop Music Blog and founder of the Hip Hop radio show Underground Railroad on New York’s WBAI.

This year has been full of race and I fear the worst is yet to come. This election is bound to get messy. I think Jay is right. Judge people by their actions because in the end, you can’t really know who they are because you’re not them.

Oh, and I love his review of Wall-E.

[Via Ill Doctrine]

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A few things to keep in mind before you jump right into the “OMGZ, teh Japanz R Racist!” pool. Snow monkeys are revered as intelligent and wise in Japan. They even have their own temples. There is a new political drama on Japanese television that started in May called Change. The intended audience does not associate monkeys with racist images of blacks. Of course, the intended audience isn’t all that diverse to begin with. Also, The intended audience has not been assaulted on a daily basis by the Democratic primary race.

So let’s get into this.

From an American perspective, this is horribly racist. The “Change” banners, the monkey in a suit, it’s clearly a riff on Obama’s campaign. Sure, all the presidential candidates this time around have attempted to use “change” as their theme. But most of us readily associate “change” with Obama. Blacks have been portrayed as monkeys in racist cartoons and comics here in America so it’s easy to associate the monkey with Obama and therefore conclude that this is a racist commercial.

From a Japanese perspective, I don’t know. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, or in this case, a monkey. And if the snow monkey is truly a revered animal, it could be that this is their screwy way of paying tribute to Obama. Or it could have nothing to do with him at all. The monkey has been part of other Emobile ad campaigns and if this “Change” show is popular, it makes sense to do a riff on a political theme.

Is this just a cute monkey with a phone or is Emobile demonstrating a lack of judgment by replacing Obama with a monkey?

[Via Gizmodo]

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Racism in Tokyo:

Segregation in Tokyo:

Brilliant.

[Via Tokyo Comedy from Kotaku]

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I love the fact that we can embed South Park now!

Reader Kevin Bahrt sent over this clip where the boys give a presentation on the savage hypocrisy of hate crime laws. South Park usually comments on current events within the context of the show, but I’m not entirely sure what event this episode was riffing on. Regardless, I think it’s a fairly sensible assessment of hate crime laws in general. Well, as sensible as you’re going to get from the tele anyway.

[Via Comedy Central]

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